1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an ink-jet printer, and more particularly, to a technique for processing the operation of a key of an operating panel thereof
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an ink-jet printer has an operating panel including many keys for inputting many kinds of commands. In an earlier operating panel, a key input unit is comprised of a power supply key for turning the power supply on and off, a cartridge exchange key for effecting a cartridge exchange, a form feed key for effecting a form feed, and other keys for other features. Thus, a user can input many kinds of commands to the ink-jet printer by operating the aforesaid keys of the key input unit.
On the other hand, a user can input the commands to the ink-jet printer through a host. The host, using a Windows operating system, for example, includes a printer control board. A user can input many kinds of commands to the ink-jet printer by clicking the printer control board using a mouse. Thus, typically, the inkjet printer (herein, it refers to a printer which is used with the Windows operating system, exclusively) is capable of just being controlled by the host which reduces the number of keys of the operating panel in order to simplify the key input unit thereof and to also lower the manufacturing cost.
Typically, the inkjet printer can be also controlled by a host using a DOS (Disk Operating System) operating system. The host using DOS does not include the printer control board which is different from the host using Windows. For that reason, a user can not input many kinds of commands to the ink-jet printer through the host using DOS. Further, it is a disadvantage in that the key input unit of the operating panel can not be simplified in the earlier ink-jet printer differently from the printer which is exclusively used with a host using Windows.
The following patents each disclose features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the specifically recited technique for using one key for both form feed and cartridge exchange as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,844 to Nishiyama, entitled Printing Method And Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,514 to Nishiyama, entitled Printing Method And Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,257 to Ishii et aL, entitled Image Forming Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,421 to Nishiyama, entitled Duplicating-Sheet-Number Setting Device, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,994 to Barley et al., entitled Progressive Disclosure Copying Machine Console Using Common Keys For Copy Number And Function Select Operations.